Halo: Behind Enemy Lines
by Grey11
Summary: When Gray team is sent to discover the Covenant battle plan they discover more than they bargained for. Now they are the only thing that stands between a mad prophet and his genocidal campaign.


Four Jackals guarded the door. They seemed inattentive almost lazy in their duty. This would be to easy Adrianna thought as she silently shifted her way through the air ducts in the Covenant base. Despite being encased in her MJOLINIR armor she moved quietly as a mouse not alerting any of the Covenant to her presence. She easily detached the grate covering the duct and slid behind some crates. She stuck her head around the corner just to make sure she hadn't been heard. All she had to do now was get their attention.

****

The leader of the Jackal squad Kal Ruckt was extremely bored. The only reason they were guarding the door to the computer mainframe was because of rumors of Heretics spreading dissent in the Covenant ranks. He gave the Kig-Yar(Jackal) equivalent of a snort. The Prophets didn't use that every time they felt like they were losing the respect of their Sanghelli minions. Personally he could care less about the Prophets and their "journey" as long as he got his share of the plunder he was happy. If that meant he had to guard the computer mainframe from imaginary heretics he didn't care.

Thinking of plunder he turned his attention to the female member of his squad. Chect Yu. She was the prize of every male under his command. Only he however could really be considered her equal. She was the offspring of a ships mistress and she could gain valuable plunder and status by mating with him. He could feel his plumes warming as he watched her. He let his imagination run for a while only to be distracted by a clanging noise from behind some crates the Unggony had yet to move. He snarled his distaste.

"Flo!" He barked to his underling "Go flush those troublesome grunts out and get them back to work! I don't want to be jumping every time they drop something! Beat them if you have to just keep them from lazing off!"

Flo grinned at the prospect of beating some foolish Unggony and moved off to find them. Kal waited ten minutes and Flo did not return. Growling he barked to his other man to find him. Ten minutes later he had neither had shown up. Twenty minutes and both were gone. He was beginning to get angry. Not because he was afraid that they might kill one of the Unggony, he could care less about them, but because if one of his Sanghelli superiors came along he would be in trouble for slacking off he decided a quick run to get them and be back before anyone was the wiser.

"Chect with me, lets get these idiots back." He growled. They walked loudly into the mass of crates making their presence known if only to scare his two men back into compliance.

"Alright you laggards! Funs over! Come out now or I'll discipline you!" His shout reverberated around the corridor but no one replied. Growling he turned to Chect "You go left see if you can-" he was stunned into silence. Chect lay there, clearly dead, her head having been twisted completely around so that her body was facing forwards but she was looking at the floor behind her. He reached for his pistol, only to feel cold steel hands close around his neck. Then blackness

***

Adrianna sighed. She had been afraid that she wouldn't be able to stealthily eliminate the two Jackals at once. The others had so obligingly come at her one by one. Then she had snapped their necks and stowed away the bodies. This time she had used the Jackals shout to her advantage. While he shouted his rage at the heavens she had quietly killed the third and slipped behind him thus ending his life. She was slightly disappointed it had taken nearly half and hour. She sighed the price of stealth. She checked the fourth Jackal for the spherical devices the Covenant used as keys. Finding the one she assumed she needed she stored the bodies with the other two inside a crate and headed towards her objective.

The room she sought was a Covenant computer mainframe. It housed a warehouse full of information on them. It was one of two backups in case the main data storage unit was compromised. As such it warranted as small detail of guards. She slid the doors open and went inside.

"Okay Mike what am I looking for?" She asked the teams tech specialist over her internal comm.

"Well just slide the program Viper gave you into the mainframe and she'll get what we need." Mike replied. Viper was the sarcastic AI that the ONI had "gifted" them with for their current mission. Find any upcoming Covenant attack plans. The AI stuck to that mission ruthlessly. Her wit and compassion gave her a real love-hate relationship with Gray team. They loved the advantage she gave them, they hated having her around.

A silhouette appeared of a woman wearing leather with a whip at her side. She spared Adrianna a glace trough her jet black hair then silently began tearing the Covenant network apart. She processed data at an amazing speed and was through multiple Covenant files in seconds. She read the increasing supply troubles they were having and smiled. Gray team had played a hand in that. Blowing up three Covenant supply stations using nukes and had put a real dent in their offensive efforts. She shifted through layers of security protocols and conversations between commanders until she finally found what she was looking for. "Bingo" she whispered. The massive Spartan rapped the console. Viper sighed. She began downloading the data and was nearly finished when- "Oh no." she whispered.

"What?" Adrianna asked, her dislike for the AI suddenly melting away.

"Cole protocol has been breached. The Covenant recently intercepted a freighter making a direct slipspace jump. They have the co-ordinates to one of the Inner Colonies."

"Which one?" Adrianna demanded.

"Iago II. The main production center of Titanium A. Home to nearly 700 million people." Adrianna's blood went cold. The Covenant might be about to wipe out a sizable population of humans. Then she smiled. Not if they had anything to say about it. Suddenly a shrill alarm sounded. Adrianna looked around in surprise.

"Oh and did I forget to mention that they detected my little intrusion? A security team is on its way. They'll be here in five." Viper added innocently. Adrianna groaned and ripped the chip out of its socket. She drew her pistol and added the silencer making her way to where she had infiltrated the area in the first place. She barreled through the crates surprising a group of Grunts who scrambled to draw their pistols. She caved the first's skull with her foot and put a bullet through the second's head. The third managed to whip its pistol out but, not before a third eye appeared in the center of its forehead too. She reached the air duct just in time to see that another group of four Grunts blocked her path. They were hemmed in by the boxes but reacted quickly drawing their plasma pistols.

They fired nearly instantaneously. Their shots were panicked though and went wide. She managed to fire off two shots killing the first grunt then turned and finished the second. The other two fired again, their aim getting better. She rolled to avoid a blow that nearly melted her face off. They fired again but she got a bead on them and fired back finally silencing that threat. She yanked herself back into the air duct and slipped away a full three minutes before the Covenant security team arrived to find the carnage. No one had been the wiser that a Spartan had been in their midst.


End file.
